Topic: The Death Penalty

General Purpose: To Persuade

Specific Purpose: To convince my audience that the death penalty is wrong.
Central Idea: The death penalty is wrong.

Gary Ray Bowles beat and strangled six men to death to steal their credit cards in
1994. David Carpenter also known as "The Trailside Killer" stalked, raped, and
murdered 5 women on San Francisco-area hiking trails between 1979 and 1981.
Anthony Kirkland killed 5 women between 1987 and 2009, typically strangling
them then setting their bodies on fire. (Startling Statement) These were terrible
men, monsters really. Do you think they deserve to die for what they did?
(Rhetorical Question) I would imagine the answer for most of you would be yes.
The States where these men committed their crimes would agree; they gave all of
these men the death penalty. The death penalty is a legal process whereby a
person is put to death by the state as a punishment for a crime. (Definition) The
death penalty is currently a legal sentence in 32 states in the United States of
America (Statistic) Our own state, Massachusetts, does not have the death
penalty. Now, many people believe that the death penalty is just, that there are men
that deserve to die for their crimes. Im sure several of you thought that the men I
described earlier deserved to die. Well I disagree. I am man with strong sense of
justice, but with an even stronger sense of humanity, of empathy, and of morality. I

get these things from my family, who raised me on these values. (Qualifications)
To me, it is never just to end a human beings life, even if they do deserve it.
(Central Idea) Today, I am going to tell you why I believe the death penalty is
wrong, and why I believe it should be abolished.
Execution of criminals has been used by nearly all societies since the beginnings
of human civilization. Historically there have been many reasons for executing
people. (Explanation) Murder, rape, and treason are all typically associated with
the death penalty. However, for various reasons, governments and groups of people
have made other lesser crimes punishable by death, such as adultery, heresy, theft
and many others. (Examples)
In the modern age, especially in the United States, the death penalty is usually
reserved for criminals who have committed murder. The last time a person was
given the death penalty in the United States for a reason other than murder was
September 4, 1964, when James Coburn was executed for robbery in Alabama.
(Explanation and Example) In other countries though, executions for criminals
who have not committed murder are still practiced, mostly in areas of political
unrest.
As we have moved forward in time, countries that continue to use the death
penalty have tried to find ways to make the process of execution more humane.

France developed the guillotine for this reason in the final years of the 18th
century. In the United States the electric chair and the gas chamber were invented
as humane alternatives to traditional forms of execution. Recently lethal injection
has superseded most other forms of humane executions and is currently the most
popular method in the United States. (Explanation and Examples)
I stand firmly against the death penalty, for many reasons. The biggest reason is
that I believe that it is morally wrong. Let me explain that. Execution is vastly
different than killing. You must have a person under your absolute control in order
to execute them. They are completely at your mercy. The only reason to end that
persons life is that you feel as if they deserve to die. There is no outside force, no
outside reason, that makes that persons death necessary. Their death is your choice,
and if you can choose not to end a life that is what you have to do. If there is an
option not to end someones life, no matter how difficult that is, that is the option
you should take. (Explanation)
Those who support the death penalty offer a number of practical reasons as to why
it should be an option.
One of those reasons is that it acts as a deterrent. And that might well be true.
Giving the death penalty to criminals will probably deter others from committing
the same crime. My rebuttal to that is, at least in this country, we should not need

to threaten people with death in order to stop them from committing crimes.
Because that is really what the death penalty is. The death penalty, when you boil it
down, is saying, if you commit this crime, we will kill you. I feel were better than
that as a nation. In addition, life imprisonment, the traditional alterative to the
death penalty, can act as a deterrent just as well as the death penalty, and if we have
an alternative method for deterrence, we do not need to use the death penalty.
(Compare/Contrast)
In terms of cost, keeping a person in prison for life is often cheaper than
executing them. Recent studies show that executing a criminal costs more than
life imprisonment does. (Statistic) Many states have found it cheaper to sentence
criminals to life in prison than to go through the time-consuming and bureaucratic
process of executing a convicted criminal. (Explanation)
Some might say that the death penalty is valid, just retribution for men who have
committed terrible crimes. I can sympathize with this. But to me, retribution is an
invalid reason to continue to use the death penalty. Retribution is in reality just
revenge, and revenge only serves to make people who have been wronged feel
better. (Explanation)
All in all (Transition Words), I offer few practical reasons to abolish the death
penalty. But in my mind it is a moral issue, and the death penalty is morally

wrong. (Restatement of Central Idea) If we continue to allow our governments to

execute people, in many regards, we will become little better than the people they
execute. (Negative Vision of the Future) I know that we can be better than that. I
know that even though we have the power to kill, we will have the mercy and the
compassion not to, even if they do deserve it.